How Well Do You Know What Your Customers Really Want?

I teach a course on new product innovation for MBA students, and one of the points I try to drive home is that any successful product is going to need to meet the needs or desires of a particular customer base.

That seems obvious. Right? But you’d be surprised how quickly that information fades from the minds of not only students, but well-seasoned product developers.

Last semester, shortly after driving this point home, my students started down a road of brainstorming new matcha green tea-flavored products. Several of them were regular Whole Foods shoppers. I had to remind them that the majority of grocery shoppers don’t go to high-end stores, and their own flavor preferences might not fit into the broader market.

This happens because we have a human tendency to think about the products that we would like to have ourselves. If you are similar to the people you’re selling to, that may not be a problem. But we often don’t even realize that our own experiences may put us in certain niches into which the majority of people don’t fit.

Knowing your customer is critical, but I’ve found that suggesting that to companies can cause them to balk at what they perceive will be a big expense. These days, however, it’s easier than ever to gather high-quality customer data that will better inform those product development meetings. The key is to learn from a few people in context.

That is, if we are interested in developing a new breakfast product, for example, we need to have some in-depth knowledge about our customers’ morning routines. We should watch them prep themselves for work or get the kids ready for school and ask about the frustrations they encounter during those tasks. We need to ask in-depth questions about the types of products they and their families enjoy and what might make getting a nutritious meal down before heading out the door a little easier.